Carrie Underwood Became a Vegetarian After Seeing Her Parents Castrate Calves

There are plenty of reasons why people embrace vegetarianism. But while some people do it because they love animals, and others do it to maintain a healthy lifestyle, Carrie Underwood has an, er, interesting reason for not eating meat. When she sat down for a dish session on VH1's 'Behind the Music,' she admitted why she's a vegetarian.

Growing up in Oklahoma, Underwood was never unfamiliar with the hard work it takes to run a farm. But it also never occurred to her that when she was eating meatloaf for dinner, she was eating one of the cows from her parents' pasture. The 'Good Girl' singer didn't live in the ignorant bliss of eating meat for long, though. Once she saw her parents banding calves on the farm, she switched to veggies.

If you're a city slicker, you probably don't know what banding means. Underwood didn't want to tell her interviewer on VH1's 'Behind the Music,' as she quipped that it wouldn't be "very ladylike." But we'll tell you: Banding is when farmers place a tool around the testicles of a calf in order to cut off blood flow in order to castrate them. Yeah, we said it.

"I never made the connection until one day my parents were working out in the pasture...and they were banding calves," she said. "I was horrified and sad, and I just couldn't believe that this was happening in our pasture. Right there! These adorable baby little calves jumping around, playing around. They would be on someone's plate someday!"

And that was it for Underwood. From that point on, she was a vegetarian. Of course, the 'Blown Away' hitmaker's parents weren't thrilled that their sweet little girl was no longer eating meat. But they didn't try to change her mind.

"I couldn't eat those precious cows--they were my babies! I bottle-fed some of them," she added.

In other bonus footage from Underwood's 'Behind the Scenes' footage, she dished about her wedding to hockey player Mike Fisher, her college boyfriend, growing up in a Christian town and the ever-churning rumor mill.